Executing merger and acquisition is a lot of work. When one organization is acquired by another organization almost all departments within the organization need to be unified.
However, this article is focused on salesforce org unification strategy and architects play key roles in that.
Salesforce instance merging scenarios
When merger or acquisitions happen for two companies having their own salesforce instance, the biggest question is which salesforce org needs to be retained from a long term strategy perspective you do not want to maintain both salesforce instances.
Sometimes, the answer is very simple. When an acquired organization is relatively smaller than parent organization, typically parent organizations’ salesforce instance will stay and acquired organizations processes need to be migrated over to parent organizations’ salesforce instance.
However, there are instances when parent and merged organizations have equally big implementations in salesforce. This is when an IT architect needs to come up with a strategy to make an informed decision of retaining a salesforce instance.
Strategy for merging two equally big salesforce implementations during merger and acquisitions
It will be an emotional journey for teams in both organizations going through merger and acquisitions, a lot of times this process impacts their jobs. Each organization emotionally wanted to keep their salesforce instance alive. Sometimes these decisions come as a mandate from C level leaders too. However, these decisions should be made based on thorough analysis by technical architects by both organizations and clear proposals should be presented to C level executives to make informed decisions based on detailed technical assessment of keeping one instance vs other.
Framework for deciding target Salesforce instance after Merger
Decision on target salesforce instance should be based on multiple factors and its different for each organization and their priority, here we will touch base on high level framework to help in making this decision.
Step 1: Prepare technical architecture landscape diagrams (if not available) along with all integrations with peripheral applications for each salesforce instance. Visual representation of technical architecture helps in a better decision making process.
Step 2: Make inventory of critical processes in each sandbox. Now, this is an important activity where you need to understand all business processes implemented in that org along with real usage and adoptions. This is also time for you to think about dumping functionalities and processes which are not used/adopted by users.
Step 3: Get inventory of data in both orgs. This is another factor to consider for your decision-making process. Some of the critical data like number of customers, number of opportunities, cases, leads etc. can be helpful for the decision making process.
Step 4: Use capability heatmap scoring methodology exercise for both orgs in consultation with your business partners to make accurate scoring.
Example of reference framework for Lead to Record process areas within an organization. This is a reference to identify various process areas to create capability mapping heatmap scoring.
Example of business capability heat map scoring framework.
Definitions:
Business Differentiation: How significant is the capability.
– Critical/Strategic, Substantial, Minor/Commodity
Process Maturity: How mature is underlying business process.
– Advanced, Intermediate, Basic
Solution Maturity: How well does the business systems support the capability.
– Working Well, Sub Optimal, Problematic, does not exist.
Below example is for level 1 business capability heat map, this can be done at level 2 or level 3 business capabilities.
Step 5: Understand the disposition of integrated peripheral applications like ERP, Quoting, HR systems, Marketing applications, Data warehouse applications impact on the target architecture. Which organizations ERP platform and peripheral applications are going to stay will also make important factor in decision making process.
Step 6: Present a true picture to C level executives along with recommendations for decision making. Recommendation should consider multiple factors – fitment of target business processes, business capability mapping scoring, disposition of integrated/peripheral applications, master and transactional data count, technical feasibility, dependencies, timeline, and cost of migration/merging of processes between two salesforce instances and risks.
Conclusion
Merger and Acquisitions impact on salesforce org consolidation needs to be carefully evaluated. Most of the time the parent org is big enough to make easy decisions. However, there are instances when parent and merged/acquired org instances are equally big. IT architects should follow best practices and frameworks like business capability mapping heatmap scoring to make informed decisions.
About the Author
Tejas Gohel currently working as Senior Business Application leader in Intuitive. Having close to 18 years’ experience in salesforce.com implementations. Worked on various merger and acquisition projects as consultant for Cisco and as employee for Symantec. This specific use case was based on his experience on merging Symantec salesforce instance with Bluecoat salesforce instance.
References
https://www.metazoa.com/best-practices-salesforce-org-mergers/
https://www.cloudkettle.com/blog/approaches-for-salesforce-org-mergers/
